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A 16-year-old employee of pizza chain Papa John's has been let go after referring to a customer as 'lady chinky eyes' on a meal receipt.

The customer, communications manager Minhee Cho, took to Twitter shortly after the incident on Friday at Papa John's Broadway branch in New York. She posted a screenshot of the receipt, adding: 'Hey @PapaJohns just FYI my name isn't 'lady chinky eyes'.'

Several hours later after the message had spread on Twitter, the Kentucky-based company formally apologised on its Facebook and Twitter pages for Cho's experience.

'We are very upset by recent receipt issue in New York & sincerely apologize [sic] to our customer. Franchise employee involved is being terminated,' Papa John's tweeted on Saturday.

The company's Twitter account then issued a further 19 similar responses to individuals on the microblogging site.

Cho told the New York Daily News that she was surprised at the comments on the receipt. 'I was very surprised because the lady that was serving me was super nice and we joked and it seemed super normal,' she said.